TV: Journeyman Review

Dan Vassar (Kevin McKidd from "Rome") is just your run-of-the-mill journalist, who chases a story by day and has dinner with his wife and kid at night, until one day he steps into a cab and wakes up in a different year. This happens continuously over a couple of days. To his friends, family, and boss he's dropped off the face of the Earth for days at a time and even abandons his car mid-driving, crashing it into a pole. He worries them so much they have an intervention for fear that he's fallen off the wagon? or started doing drugs? It's clear that he would have reason to. A couple years ago, he was engaged and in love with a beautiful lawyer, Livia (Moon Bloodgood from "Day Break"). But she died in an airplane crash before they got married. Somewhere in between his brother, Jack (Reed Diamond from "Judging Amy") also had some troubled times where he neglected his wife, Katie (Gretchen Egolf from "Martial Law"), resulting in their divorce. Dan must've been there to console her because now they're married with a son.

As he tries to keep his sanity and his credibilty, he's pulled back into time to track a man who tried to kill himself because his pregnant girlfriend wanted to get an abortion and leave him. He seems to identify who needs help with an eerie sixth sense. In the end, Dan realizes that the person he has to save isn't the man--who ultimately tries to murder both mother and child--but the man's son who would one day save seven other kids from a terrible school bus accident. So once you've resolved to thinking that Dan has a calling--spiritual or otherwise--you're thrown for a loop. Livia recognizes him when he goes back in time, but not as himself of the past but of the future. She knows what he's doing and how he's supposed to be doing it, like she's done it before. And that's what'll keep you coming back. Did she die in the airplane? Why can she travel through time too? Why him?

The only blaringly obvious fault that I saw in the pilot was the fact that in the end, after proving to his wife that he was telling the truth, he accepts his new fate. While his wife lays in bed at night, he gets dressed, sits in the arm chair and waits to be transported through time--making sure that once he goes he isn't stunted by a lack of clothes, an empty wallet, or disorientation. Really? Before he started going back in time, he said he had a bad headache. I think I would go see a doctor. I'm not just going to sit there and wait for it to happen again, even if I saved somebody's life. What if he has a tumor? That would be an interesting season finale cliffhanger. Either way, it's worth another viewing if you're into the "Dead Zone"-type mystery drama.

Tune in Mondays at 10pm on NBC.